My friend recently got me to try boarding and now I am hooked. I rented the first 2 times and now I think I want to get my own setup. I am 25, 5'10", 210 lbs. size 11 boot. The 1st time I rented/rode they gave me a 160. The last time it was a Rossingol 155 and I felt 10x more comfortable. It could have been other factors like binding angle or something else, but it was def. more comfortable on the 155. I looked at some boards today @ dicks like the 5150 vice and shifter. vice was 200 w/ 1500 bindings and the shifter was 250 w/ 2000 bindings. I plan to mostly cruise the slopes and maybe hit a jump or 2 when I get good enough, but nothing crazy. budget is prolly about 300 or so for board, bindings and boots. Suggestions??

i am somewhat in the same boat as you, except i had never snowboard before i bought my gear...i am 6'1" 220, so i went ahead and got a 163 size, but i have only been able to get down a sledding hill a few times, so i cant comment on wheather or not it feels too big..

i ended up getting a set off ebay - M3 discord board, M3 bindings and avalanche boots...$300 shipped...

so far though, i am not too happy the the bindings...they hold me in there good enough, but dont really come loose when i got to the bottom of the hill...and teh boots arent that uncomfortable, but there are a few spots on the calfs that hurt...that might just be my legs getting use to snowboard boots...

the guy on ebay is wiredsport...he as a website as well (wiredsport.com), and i think you can just buy a board there...so check that out and maybe pair it with some better bindings and boots

i dont really know if m3 is a good enough brand or not...i went cheap cause i never had boarded before...if i KNEW i would keep with it, i would have gotten a little nicer gear, probably in the $500 total range...maybe next year

The shorter board will be easier to learn on but with your weight you will probably want the longer one once you start to get the hang of thing. However once you really get the hang of things you will quickly want to upgrade from the $300 setup.

I picked up my 5150 wide stroke with bindings for 258$.. some closeout special solomon symbio boots for 70$.... It shouldn't be hard at all to keep it around 300$.... especially if you don't need a wide board...

BTW: Listen to the guys on here that tell you not to buy boots online... I tried on three different 11.5 solomon's and they all fit different... To me saving 40$ isn't worth bruised up/sore feet...

I am the same size as you but I have a size 10.5 boot. I ride a forum 160 Bjorn Leines and it feels great. I got the board that matched my weight. I have tried other boards but the smaller ones just don't feel right when I start going fast. Go into a good snowboard shop and ask them to help you fit a board and boots to your size. Boot fitting is more important than anything else.

You're probably going to need at least a midwide board with your boot size and do not buy boots online as you really need to get them fitted properly. At your weight you should be looking at boards in the 160-164 range depending on the company with a waist width of 26.xxx cm to make sure you have the width for your boots. I'd avoid buying any snowboarding equipment from Dicks...look for closeouts on last years stuff you should still be able to find something that suits what you want or even get something used as your first board...